About Us
Art Fair SourceBook is the independent guide artists have trusted for over 30 years to plan smarter show seasons. We cover 700+ art fairs and craft shows nationwide with honest ratings, real exhibitor reviews, and the insight you need to put your time and booth fees into the right shows.
We also work closely with art fair and craft show organizers to help them attract top professional artists and raise the quality of their events, based on direct feedback from the artists who exhibit there.
Who Are We?
Wendy took over the Art Fair SourceBook from founder Greg Lawler in 2025, bringing with her a working fine artist who has exhibited at shows across the country for years. She travels the circuit alongside him, running the business side of their operation. Together they bring both creative and operational perspective to AFSB.
Their commitment is straightforward: preserve everything Greg built and keep making it more useful for the artists who depend on it every season.
How did the SourceBook get started?
One day in the early 90s, Greg Lawler woke up, rolled out of bed, and once again faced the mountain of applications from numerous art fairs that he believed showed potential. The overwhelming paperwork made him want to crawl back into bed, pull the covers over his head, and let someone else handle the deluge. But with a hungry family of five to feed, he knew that option was off the table. He would have to push through the information overload himself.
Greg understood that he wouldn't be able to participate in all those shows, nor would he ever want to. The critical question was which shows would be the most profitable and best suited for selling his work. On that bleak December morning—before even having his first cup of coffee—he decided to take on the challenge of researching, analyzing, and organizing the vital information about the complex world of art fairs, often referred to as "The Circuit."
As a means of self-preservation, he created his own guide. Years later, he was grateful he did. As an artist and fellow exhibitor, he benefitted immensely from the SourceBook throughout his years of exhibiting, and so can you. To date, more than 20,000 artists have subscribed to the SourceBook over the years and gained from its unique approach. Thanks to this powerful tool, you will be better prepared to navigate the sea of applications, allowing you to select only the best events for your specific style of creative work, saving you valuable time, increasing your earnings, and paving a smoother path to your success as an independent artist.
Greg decided to retire in 2025. After years of helping countless artists, he was pleased to discover that others were interested in continuing his mission, ensuring that artists across the country could keep benefiting from the AFSB.
Who is Greg Lawler?
Since 1993, GREG LAWLER has authored the most comprehensive guide to juried fine art and crafts shows on the planet.
The Art Fair SourceBook was born out of necessity, created by a weary, itinerant artist who was tired of wasting valuable time, money and energy on unprofitable art fairs, and missing the deadlines for some of the most profitable ones.
First created as a personal road map, the SourceBook soon took on a life of its own. Now after 32 years of publication, Greg Lawler's Art Fair SourceBook™ is frequently referred to as the "bible of the industry". You won't find a more thoroughly researched, up-to-date or easy-to-use source anywhere. It's the ONLY guide written from an exhibitor's perspective, by a fellow exhibiting artist who's still in the trenches with you.
Since beginning to show his photography at art fairs in late 1990, Greg has exhibited at over 500 events nationwide. He has tried out nearly every type of event, big and small, distinguished and highly renowned, as well as virtually unheard of. Along the way, Greg quickly learned that not all shows are created equal, and that it's essential to an artist's survival to quickly figure out which shows are most likely to work for them, and which will likely be wheel-spinners, or worse.
What is the Art Fair SourceBook?
The SourceBook is the most comprehensive guide to the top-selling art fairs and craft shows in the USA. As a subscriber, you will have access to more information about each event before applying than anyone who isn’t a subscriber. You'll discover the best booth locations, strategies to make setup and takedown easier, whether generators will be available at a show, how many artists applied last year, and how many spaces were available outside of the jury process.
The SourceBook offers an extensive online review of events, providing several key advantages. You can scroll through an unlimited number of web pages to find more information than any other source offers.
Additionally, the resource is instantly updatable. We can refresh the information in real-time. For example, if an event organizer changes their show dates or application deadlines, our online format allows us to immediately update the listing that subscribers see.
We also have plans to further develop the value added of AFSB to its subscribers with the goal of helping new artists who are starting out and seasoned artists looking to expand and hone their seasonal calendar.
How does the SourceBook do all this?
For over 32 years, the SourceBook has collected extensive notes on sales results and anecdotal evidence from exhibitors at more than 1,000 art fairs and craft shows across the country. This information is gathered through our AFSB Exhibitor Feedback emails and online submissions on our website. Greg has personally visited over 800 events throughout the years, and Wendy and our Field Editor will continue to do so each year.
Wendy and our Field Editor analyze this information and present their findings to subscribers in the annual "Editor's Commentary" on each of the shows in our "Top 600 Events" list. This is a daunting task involving hundreds of hours of reading and summarizing thousands of reports from artists like you. By drawing from a vast pool of exhibitors' feedback, we gain valuable insights into today's art fair marketplace.
After more than 32 years, why is the SourceBook still relevant?
With the rise of the internet and digital application systems such as Zapplication, JAS, and EntryThingy, applying to shows has become much easier. However, this ease also means that it's simpler to waste money on events that might be listed among the top shows but don't actually offer a good sales potential for you. If you apply to shows merely because they appear on those lists, you might be risking thousands of dollars unnecessarily and valuable time lost.
The core issue remains: how do we select the events most likely to be profitable and worth a significant investment of time and money while avoiding those that may not yield returns? Although there are thousands of events available online, making informed choices between the successful and unsuccessful ones can only come from the independent research provided by the SourceBook.
AFSB Team
Wendy Mignone Wendy leads the operations, marketing, and production of AFSB. She brings a background in business development and communications, and travels the art fair circuit with a working fine artist throughout the year, giving the team direct and current knowledge of what artists actually need from the shows they apply to.
Field Editor and Exhibiting Artist With years of experience exhibiting fine art at shows across the country, our Field Editor brings something no algorithm can replicate: a working artist's instinct for what makes a show worth doing. Traveling the circuit season after season, attending shows firsthand, and talking with fellow exhibitors at every stop, this role keeps AFSB's reviews honest, current, and grounded in the real experience of being in the booth.
AFSB is supported by a growing team of artists, marketers, and industry professionals who share a commitment to keeping this resource the most trusted guide on the circuit.
Ken Feierstein Designs, develops, and manages the AFSB website and online systems.
We're Always Improving
Our goal is to give artists the most accurate, useful guide to art fairs and craft shows in the country. We're always looking for ways to do that better.
If you have suggestions, we'd love to hear them. Reach out through our Contact Us form or call us at 904-746-1740. In the meantime, we'll keep working to make the Art Fair SourceBook the best resource it can be.
I hope this page gives you a real sense of who we are and what drives us. AFSB exists for one reason: to help working artists find the shows worth doing and avoid the ones that aren't. That mission matters to us deeply, and we take it seriously.
Best wishes and see you out there,
Wendy Mignone, Editor and Publisher
